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[PompiPompi]

I think I am addicted to game deving :/
I barely even play games anymore, I just think of the time I need to invest in playing a game and I instantly "turned off" by it.
Not to mention doing other things besides games, but that's not for here.
Well I did start to play a really simple dummy RPG game for the Android. It's so simple with kill\loot\xp and etc, I played it for research and on the train but I started to really enjoy it.
So my gaming neurons didn't completely die.

Well it's not that bad having a gamedev addiction, at least I am being productive.

Am I the only idiot who game dev too much and don't see enough sun light? Or are there others in my situation? Being a failure indie dev might also contribute as I am eager to successed one day.

[Muz]

Yeah, same here. I just lost interest in games. For some reason, they're moving into more grind, less content, even the hardcore ones. Heck, especially the hardcore ones. The casual Big Fish style games are at least low on the fillers.

Personally, I love playing management and grand strategy type games. I get plenty of that IRL. Game dev is more of a challenge, more rewarding than playing most games now.

[PompiPompi]

Yea I look at a game like Skyrim and think "Good god, this game will take hours of my time, I just can't play it".
But not only, I must admit that suddenly many of the indie games over here as well are not appealing to me. Not because they are not good, but because I just can't to get into playing them seriously.
I used to be very curious about games over here, but now I just skim through.

Seems like mobile games are most suitable for me right now, as they happen to be available when my dev machine is not.

I tried to play BF3, but eventually stopped playing because the damn origin "steam" kept choking my PC on the background or because of downloads.

[sublinimal]

As I've become more absorbed in gamedev, I've started to appreciate games in a different, deconstructive way. I spend most of the time thinking how it's done and how it could be done better.

Like, "this sprite was really drawn by someone like me", or "someone like me spent an afternoon coding this event". Before, I just tried to throw myself into the experience and spent less effort on analyzing the implementations. Playing games and reviewing what's successful/flawed in them is a major source of inspiration.

On the flip side of the coin, games have become more disposable for me. There are still many that catch my attention or even get me addicted, but once you learn to see the patterns in game design, you end up realizing that so many games are the same thing with different presentation. Kill enemies, get items, move on.

[SundownKid]

I think it's normal that you should get tired of games if you're making games - just like any other entertainment medium, you start looking at games far more critically once you're invested in making something similar. Combine that with not wanting to spend any more time at your computer, and it becomes one or the other, so to speak.

[Muz]

I don't actually make games seriously anymore. I make little programs because that's where the money is. I just do, well, dumb text based phone RPGs. And then fill in the rest with imagination.

Because yeah, most games follow the same pattern. Most RPGs are substituting numbers for character development and wrap it with a story. Shooters are point and click. Strategy games and simulations still interest me because the gameplay actually does vary widely, but there's maybe only 6 out there which are actually fun. But I don't touch RTSes because they're all the same.

Plus, I did some semi-professional gaming a few years back and you realize that competitive gaming is all about exploiting the game to the point where it doesn't look anything like it was meant to be. When playing football games, I now look for the position on the field to shoot from which the goalkeeper can't block, or how to time the passes such that they jam the defender's AI. Rather than focusing on fun things like tactics or finesse. That really killed a lot of the fun for me. At least games like DoTA don't even pretend to be anything.


With say, running a business, you get some actual emergent stuff. How do I attract people? How do I motivate/train them? Where's the sweet spot on prices where people will pay a lot but buy in the same quantities? How do I run competitors out of business?

There's a genuine feeling of accomplishment there. I don't feel like I'm exploiting mechanics, unlike Skyrim's dagger mastersmithing or X-Com's Laser Cannon businesses.

Game dev is kind of like that.. it's solving one problem after another. Sometimes the joy of getting a solution which you can apply lots of times. Drawing a really nice animated sprite beats watching a cutscene of your character killing a really nice animated sprite. It's just... more fun and more real.

[ThemsAllTook]

For me, it's like there's a switch in my head that goes from "gamer" to "developer". I have no control over it, and it toggles itself once every few weeks or so. I have a lot of trouble enjoying both at once, but which one I enjoy more flipflops randomly. It's weird.

[VDZ]

Because yeah, most games follow the same pattern. Most RPGs are substituting numbers for character development and wrap it with a story. Shooters are point and click. Strategy games and simulations still interest me because the gameplay actually does vary widely, but there's maybe only 6 out there which are actually fun. But I don't touch RTSes because they're all the same.

All games are the same. You press keys, move the mouse and click mouse buttons and stuff changes on the screen.

There's a genuine feeling of accomplishment there. I don't feel like I'm exploiting mechanics, unlike Skyrim's dagger mastersmithing or X-Com's Laser Cannon businesses.

You know, especially in a game like Skyrim, the 'most efficient' way to play isn't the only way to play. Skyrim is a roleplaying game; I enjoy myself just riding through the world on my horse (no fast travel), I'm collecting books, try to resolve most fights by just conjuring something to fight for me while I do more amusing things, etc. Anything would get boring if you only mechanically do the things the game asks for you as if they're tasks you must complete as efficiently as possible.

[seagaia]

for me it's a matter of whether or not what i'm consuming is even beneficial or healthy, game-dev wise. some games just feel like a massive waste of time, even though they are fun. in that respect, so many games are throwaway so you really have to look hard since there are so many. and that takes time so i'd rather just be working on my own thing in the meantime...

[Eigen]

The catch is that in order to design a good game, you have to play a lot of games.

[Paul Eres]

The catch is that in order to design a good game, you have to play a lot of games.

most of us already have played a lot of games, though. for instance i'm 34 so i've played a ton of games when growing up, maybe tens of thousands. you don't need to continuously play games now if you already had a history of playing a lot of games. i barely play games anymore, but that doesn't mean i don't know what makes games good, because i used to play them a lot

[Christian Knudsen]

Games and players evolve over time, though. I couldn't really imagine a filmmaker or musician stating that they don't watch films or listen to music anymore, since they already did that a lot when growing up...

[ThemsAllTook]

The catch is that in order to design a good game, you have to play a lot of games.

most of us already have played a lot of games, though. for instance i'm 34 so i've played a ton of games when growing up, maybe tens of thousands. you don't need to continuously play games now if you already had a history of playing a lot of games. i barely play games anymore, but that doesn't mean i don't know what makes games good, because i used to play them a lot

Things keep changing, though. Until recently I'd been almost completely out of touch with modern games, and there was a lot of terminology and metaphor I heard people talking about that I didn't understand. I've been making an effort lately to catch up and learn what all the fuss is about. Of course, none of this has to do with making good games, but ignoring new stuff means you're kind of stuck in a previous era and your games might be less relatable to people who are used to newer ones.

[Paul Eres]

things change but there's still an huge audience for older styles of games (and in other media too). i would actually prefer if filmmakers made 80s style moves instead of 2010s style movies

[Brad811]

for instance i'm 34 so i've played a ton of games when growing up, maybe tens of thousands.

I did the math, and that means you've played on average at least one new game every day since you were 6 (if you did make it to 10,000).  That's intense.

For me, it's like there's a switch in my head that goes from "gamer" to "developer". I have no control over it, and it toggles itself once every few weeks or so. I have a lot of trouble enjoying both at once, but which one I enjoy more flipflops randomly. It's weird.

I second this. Although I've gotten a little control over which direction I go in recently.

One problem I have lately is that doing anything other than something productive feels like a waste of time, which isn't necessarily a healthy way to live. Sometimes you need to get lost in another world, or do something a little less mentally taxing!
I tend to stick to games that I can click in and out of rather quickly, so I can at least be doing other things. That means usually not full screen, or with an in depth story or world. So I have to force myself to play a game like that every once in a while if I find myself with a chunk of time.
I really like those types of games. It's just hard to force myself to make the investment.